Why hello there.

 You just looked at me in the eye for 5 seconds ...

... we must be in love.

There's something odd about the way people seem to interpret the meaning behind the direction or object in which someone looks at for more than five seconds. Damn I hate cramming something huge into one sentence. A few days ago, I was chatting with some friends, and one particular friend suddenly dove into a description of a very discreet lesbian couple she sighted on the bus.
"I was just sitting in the bus and happened to observe these two girls, who, to me were quite obviously 'connected'. You could tell by how they just looked at each other in the eyes while talking.. Like, you know, most friends look in random places 80% of the time and only look each other about 20%, but for these two girls, it was the complete opposite!"
I could just not believe it. It wasn't even how they were looking at each other, or possibly even small physical contact like holding hands .. No, they were just looking at each other in the eyes while conversing.

Hold on. I'm not afraid of some eye contact with friends - in fact I'd even go as far as saying that I'm "good at it". But I constantly catch myself purposely looking away to some random fragment of space because I see the person I'm conversing with do it. It feels pretty weird to try to hold eye contact when the other person obviously feels uncomfortable doing it for long periods of time. Now here comes the big question ... Why does it become awkward when you're looking at someone else in the eyes for extended periods of time? I can understand how it'd be a bit different if you weren't talking, but rather just .. facing each other head-on. But it's different - don't be shy; if you want to engage in conversation with me, then look me in the eye (unless I'm ugly as fuck and you don't want to look at me).